Alaska Airlines to begin nonstop service to ABQ

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – A new airline is moving in to Albuquerque’s airport.

Alaska Air says flights will start running a daily nonstop flight from the Sunport to Seattle, and back, in September. The city calls this a big announcement as it expects changes to service levels with Southwest Airlines in the coming months.

The new service from Alaska Air will be its first flight through the Sunport.

The flights will arrive in Albuquerque around 3 o’clock in the afternoon and leave for Seattle at around 4 o’clock.

Alaska Air expects to start service on September 18.

The airline wasn’t at Friday’s press conference but calls Albuquerque an underserved market.

Albuquerque didn’t make a revenue guarantee with Alaska. Mayor R.J. Berry says the airline hasn’t committed to any other flights to Albuquerque yet, but there is hope that could happen

“We hope to sustain things with Alaska Airlines let’s get them to come to out beautiful city, let’s get folks on the airplanes traveling back and forth to the to the upper areas of Seattle, northwest region, great connectivity and if that works, we hope they’ll look at other expansions as well,” Mayor Berry said.

The mayor also said he will be meeting with Southwest Airlines in May to get a better idea of what service it’s planning to change from the Sunport.

That change is likely because of a federal law that required Southwest planes flying out of its main hub in Texas to land either in Texas or a surrounding state like New Mexico.

The law expires soon.

Frontier airlines stopped flying out of the Sunport at the start of this year. But the city says the new Jet Blue flights between Albuquerque and New York are doing very well.